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All Things iPhone and iPad for those who like to Touch. iOS App reviews, News, New Apps, Price Drops and App Gone FreeMon, 30 Mar 2015 17:52:27 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5George Hotz is out of the gamehttp://www.touchmyapps.com/2010/07/30/george-hotz-is-out-of-the-game/
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2010/07/30/george-hotz-is-out-of-the-game/#commentsFri, 30 Jul 2010 11:35:34 +0000http://www.touchmyapps.com/?p=36794George Hotz, better known as Geohot and author of the infamous blackra1n jailbreak and unlock tool that set a new standard for ease of use and speed of jailbreaking back in early autumn 2009, has officially hung his metaphorical boxing gloves in the closet. Ever since iOS 4.0 and iPhone 4 came out he was … Read more]]>

George Hotz, better known as Geohot and author of the infamous blackra1n jailbreak and unlock tool that set a new standard for ease of use and speed of jailbreaking back in early autumn 2009, has officially hung his metaphorical boxing gloves in the closet.

Ever since iOS 4.0 and iPhone 4 came out he was flooded by requests and questions regarding his plans for releasing a jailbreak tool of his own, to which he replied in various states of frustration that he has none at this point. Well, it seems one of such requests has been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and forced him to make an official statement regarding his career in Jailbreaking:

I understand most of you say you depend on my work, but reality is I made a lot of great tools and resources for others to continue. I apologize for my behavior the last few months but you must understand my life does not revolve around just iphone. This was something I picked up for fun and now it has turned to much more than that. we have many great people on the scene now, please check them out. i don’t plan on releasing anything soon. Thank you.

From the staff at TMA I would like to thank him for his work and wish him luck in his future pursuits.

And to all of you outraged audience I would like to remind that conjuring up such kind of hacks, like geohot or the Dev-Team do for the iPhone, requires a lot, and I do mean a LOT of work, not even talking about exceptional skill. Considering all of such tools are released for Free, the developers don’t actually have any obligations for them. In fact all of us should feel obliged to respect them and their wishes.

… Read more]]>http://www.touchmyapps.com/2010/07/30/george-hotz-is-out-of-the-game/feed/2The JBnator Diaries – Putting your iDevice back in jail!http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/12/10/jailbreak-restore-apple-firmware/
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/12/10/jailbreak-restore-apple-firmware/#commentsThu, 10 Dec 2009 12:15:16 +0000http://www.touchmyapps.com/?p=24505Hey you, happy jailbreakers! Or, if you’re reading this, probably, not very happy ones. Everybody knows I’m a stern advocate of releasing your Jesus phone from the bonds that Apple enforces upon him. Why else would I be writing this column? At the same time I respect that some users may decide to revert their … Read more]]>

Hey you, happy jailbreakers! Or, if you’re reading this, probably, not very happy ones. Everybody knows I’m a stern advocate of releasing your Jesus phone from the bonds that Apple enforces upon him. Why else would I be writing this column? At the same time I respect that some users may decide to revert their jailbroken phone back to its original state, for one reason or another. Be it crashes, sluggishness or even just the need to turn the phone in to Apple Care for some hardware defect, this can happen to anyone. So today I’m gonna guide you through this simple process.

Folks, I don’t know what drove you to undoing blackra1n (or any other tool you chose for jailbreaking), but there are two ways of going about it. The cleanest way would be to set the iPhone up as a new device after restoring it to its virgin state. Mind, you’ll lose all of your app and game data that way. You won’t lose any apps, music, videos or anything else synced through iTunes to external sources.

The other way is to restore of a backup after virginising your iDevice. Mind, this may lead to unforeseen consequences as it may restore some of the files from Jailbroken software. But on the other hand – it will keep all of your iPhone data intact.

… Read more]]>http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/12/10/jailbreak-restore-apple-firmware/feed/2The JBnator Diaries – Upgrading your jailbroken phone WITHOUT losing app information and savegames! (Updated for iOS 4.x)http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/11/19/the-jbnator-diaries-%e2%80%93-upgrading-your-jailbreaked-phone-without-losing-app-information-and-savegames/
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/11/19/the-jbnator-diaries-%e2%80%93-upgrading-your-jailbreaked-phone-without-losing-app-information-and-savegames/#commentsThu, 19 Nov 2009 16:01:30 +0000http://www.touchmyapps.com/?p=23441Hey you, happy jailbreakers! Your favourite iPhone blogger ChiffaN here! I have decided that there is regrettable lack of comprehensive information on iPhone Jailbreaking. Well, not really. There is actually loads of such info on the web. But there are a number of issues, still left untouched by the general community, some of which were … Read more]]>

Hey you, happy jailbreakers! Your favourite iPhone blogger ChiffaN here! I have decided that there is regrettable lack of comprehensive information on iPhone Jailbreaking. Well, not really. There is actually loads of such info on the web. But there are a number of issues, still left untouched by the general community, some of which were even deemed impossible! And here’s where I come in. In our new section, The JBnator Diaries, I will tackle such and try to put them in layman’s terms! Yeah, so even YOU can understand!

I will not bore you with what jailbreaking is. If you’re reading this, you likely already know about it. If not – google it, you’ll get more than enough results to satisfy your curiosity. And I will not describe the simple out of the box jailbreaking procedure, at least not separately. If you’re interested in that – you can check one of my recent posts on blackra1n, which has that. Rather, I will tackle one issue, any jailbreaker faces at the dreaded time when Apple releases a new OS version – upgrading without losing all the precious data on the phone. Yes, it CAN be done!

15.10.2010: Updated for iOS 4.x

Ok, folks, you’re probably asking yourself: “Why can’t we simply use the stock backup/restore feature of iTunes?” Well, strictly speaking, you can. But I would seriously advise against it for the following reason – apps, installed through Jailbreaking go quite deep into the OS files, and not all of them are backuped using the stock iTunes option. This can lead to rather unexpected crashes after the upgrade and tracking them is hellishly difficult. A lot of such problems were the widely hyped about problems with battery life after the upgrade to 3.0 and beyond, as well as a lot of the connectivity issues. My way is a bit more complex, but gives you a stable iPhone without any bugs carried over from the older OS versions.

Ok, first of all, if your iDevice isn’t jailbroken yet – do so now. If you’re on iOS 4.x ahave and iPhone 3GS and above (or equivavalent) – just follow my recent limera1n tutorial. If you’re on the iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G – search on the net for a redsn0w tutorial or just run the app – it’s rather straightforward.

Backup phase:

Run iTunes, transfer purchases, sync and do a complete backup of the iDevice just in case.

Navigate to \Documents and Settings\%username\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup and sort by details to find the last updated folder

Archive it and store somewhere safe!

Pull off all photos and/or videos from your iDevice (most easily – by opening the iPhone from the Explorer, where it mounts as a Digital Camera)

As a personal recommendation – I would advise you sift through your apps in iTunes and delete all you don’t use/have on the iDevice. You can always re-download them later for free and this way you don’t have to go and manually pick them for re-installation after the update – just pick all.

Run AppBackup on the phone and save the data of all apps and games you want to. You can also press “All” on the bottom of the app, but seriously, I usually have lots of apps I simply don’t care about and it will take a whole lot of time to do all of them.

Now open iPhone Folders and navigate to \var\mobile\Library\Preferences\AppBackup and copy everything to your PC

Now it’s time to get the other stuff of the device as well (you may skip through some if you want to restore them after by syncing with iTunes)

Now take a piece of paper, go into Cydia, open the Manage tab, go into Packages and write down all of your installed apps. You can also do a backup of the list using AptBackup, but since some of the apps differ in name from version to version, I would advise against any automatic restoration of them. Believe, I had to do a complete rejailbreak once because of this.

Finally, we’re all set.

Jailbreak and (if necessary) unlock phas

If you’re on iOS 4.x ahave and iPhone 3GS and above (or equivavalent) – just follow my recent limera1n tutorial. If you’re on the iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G – search on the net for a redsn0w tutorial or just run the app – it’s rather straightforward.

Congratulations, now you have a jailbroken iDevice, capable of working with any operator!

Restore phase:

Run Cydia, upgrade essentials, reboot

Run Cydia, install afc2add (it is required for all file managers), reboot

Run Cydia, queue all of your apps (that you wrote down), AppBackup and press confirm.

Now it’s time to put back all of the data you pulled from the phone in steps 5 and 6 of the Backup phase (except the SpringBoard file).

Connect to iTunes and set up the phone as new one.

Now check all of the apps that you had installed and run sync. Now you can really go drink some tea. My first sync took about an hour and a half (provided I DID have more than 8 GB worth of apps)

Open iFile and navigate to \var\mobile\Library\Preferences\

Tap on the arrow to the right of the AppBackup folder

Toggle the Apply hierarchically switch to On

Scroll down and tap on Owner and choose mobile

Tap on Done

Exit iFile and run AppBackup and restore all of your saved app and game data

Put back the SpringBoard IconState.plist and reboot

Hooray, hooray, you’re now the proud owner of a freshly jailbroken and upgraded “Jesus” phone, running the latest OS with all of your carefully organized icons on their rightful places.

That’s it for the the first installment of The JBnator Diaries. Hope you enjoyed it and feel free to comment with requests on future topics.

… Read more]]>http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/11/19/the-jbnator-diaries-%e2%80%93-upgrading-your-jailbreaked-phone-without-losing-app-information-and-savegames/feed/10Jailbreak Wars: Episode V – Apple Strikes Backhttp://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/10/16/jailbreak-wars-episode-v-%e2%80%93-apple-strikes-back/
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/10/16/jailbreak-wars-episode-v-%e2%80%93-apple-strikes-back/#commentsFri, 16 Oct 2009 12:54:29 +0000http://www.touchmyapps.com/?p=21703Following the recent release of blackra1n for Windows and even more recent release of it for the Mac the jailbreak war has gone into a new loop with reports coming in about the jailbreak not working on some 3GS phones. Further investigations showed that without little fuss or any press coverage, Apple updated the bootROM … Read more]]>

Following the recent release of blackra1n for Windows and even more recent release of it for the Mac the jailbreak war has gone into a new loop with reports coming in about the jailbreak not working on some 3GS phones.

Further investigations showed that without little fuss or any press coverage, Apple updated the bootROM on the latest 3GS iPhones. What does this have to with jailbreaking? Well, it’s simple: the 24kPwn exploit used in the current method of “untethered” jailbreaking has been rendered ineffective. This is true both for the blackra1n by Geohot and the PwnageTool by the Dev-Team. The good news is that a “tethered” jailbreak is still possible. This means that you can still do the procedure, but you’ll need to have the iPhone connected to the PC or Mac running balckra1n at each reboot as with an iPod Touch 3G.

So that’s a strike from Apple. Yes, it’s only a matter of time until a workaround is found, since the same thing happened with the 2G iPod Touch. It is just a minor setback. But let’s look at the bigger picture. Regardless of what Apple is saying about stability, security and all that other jazz, the main issue with jailbreaking is the ability to a) unlock the phone and b) install cracked apps.

There is little that can be said about the first problem, but following the recent studies all points to the fact that Apple may soon reassess their partnership strategy and start shipping unlocked phones.

The second problem is much more interesting. Most of the currently available apps have extremely simple DRM protection and numerous tools have been created to crack the apps automatically. At the same time, while not widely used, more complicated protections, like Kali, have been created by various developers, most of which have not been overcome to this day. Unfortunately, most developers think that app security should be handled by Apple only.

As part of the solution of this problem, Apple added in-app purchases in the 3.0 firmware, which require additional approval from the AppStore to activate and are not easily overcome. And just today, they announced that free apps will also have In-App purchases. This really is a logical and long-awaited step since it works to solve many issues with the App Store AND alternate distribution methods. A lot of developers will now be able to provide free shareware versions of their apps with In-App purchases to get the full version. This will serve both to free the AppStore from the many Lite versions, as well as the +40, +100, +200 point MMORPG applications and to heighten security. And while this will not solve the issue completely, it’ll make it difficult enough to crack the app that many people will think twice whether it is actually worth it.

What will be the outcome? Well, we’ll just have to see. But for now, I would say that Apple has won this little battle and constructed some good defence positions for future skirmishes.

… Read more]]>http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/10/16/jailbreak-wars-episode-v-%e2%80%93-apple-strikes-back/feed/0Black raindrops are falling on my iPhone! – Jailbreak with blackra1nhttp://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/10/12/jailbreak-iphonewith-blackra1n/
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2009/10/12/jailbreak-iphonewith-blackra1n/#commentsMon, 12 Oct 2009 20:16:18 +0000http://www.touchmyapps.com/?p=21400Jailbreakers, rejoice! Geohot has done it again! Yesterday he made available his long-awaited new jailbreaking tool – blackra1n. This tool tackles just about everything, from the old 2G to the latest 3.1 OTB (Out the box) 3GS and even the iPod Touch 3G. And all of this in just 30 seconds! A note of warning … Read more]]>

Jailbreakers, rejoice! Geohot has done it again! Yesterday he made available his long-awaited new jailbreaking tool – blackra1n. This tool tackles just about everything, from the old 2G to the latest 3.1 OTB (Out the box) 3GS and even the iPod Touch 3G. And all of this in just 30 seconds! A note of warning though – blackra1n is for OFFICIAL 3G/3GS phones ONLY since it requires the phone to be updated by the official 3.1.2 firmware. If you’re not afraid of this, read on!

Warning: This will ERASE all of the data on your phone so make sure you make any backups you require.

Next run blackra1n and press “Make it ra1n”.

The process starts.

Next the device should go into “Recovery mode”.

If everything goes as planned you should see the blackra1n image.

.

After the device reboots, you’ll see a blackra1n icon on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Run blackra1n on the device and choose what you love most (Cydia, Rock or Icy).

Warning: Choose only one of them; otherwise you may run into serious problems later.

And that’s all folks. You have a jailbroken “Jesus” phone.

Warning: iPod Touch 3G requires you to run balckra1n on every reboot for you to keep the jailbreak.

I would also note that blackra1n is still marked as RC1 (release candidate), so if you’re in no rush, I would recommend to wait until the final version is live. Some people have reported problems using the current version.

Thanks Geohot for sticking it to the MAN! And hooray for all the free thinking community! Apple, we will fight your evil plans for taking over the world to the very end!

Please note that TouchMyApps does not take responsibility for any harm which may come to your iDevice due to jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is a great way to add software functionality to a restricted device and we applaud both the development team who support it, and the development team who support the App Store.